The Saudi Arabia lobby in the United States is a collection of lawyers, public relation firms and professional lobbyists paid directly by the government of Saudi Arabia to lobby the public and government of the United States on behalf of the interests of the government of Saudi Arabia.
In January 2023, DAWN reported that the accounts of 16 Saudi citizens were used to exclude several pro-Saudi influencing editors from Wikipedia, affecting a diverse range of articles. [1] However, Wikipedia's operator has denied such allegations. [2]
An article by journalist John R. MacArthur in Harper's Magazine details "The Vast Power of the Saudi Lobby". [3] According to MacArthur,
The long and corrupt history of American-Saudi relations centers around the kingdom's vast reserves of easily extractable oil, of course. Ever since President Franklin D. Roosevelt met aboard ship in 1945 with King Ibn Saud, the special relationship with the desert kingdom has only grown stronger. The House of Saud is usually happy to sell us oil at a consistent and reasonable price and then increase production if unseemly market forces drive the world price of a barrel too high for U.S. consumers. In exchange we arm the Saudis to the teeth and turn a blind eye to their medieval approach to crime and punishment. [3]
According to Seymour Hersh the power of Prince Bandar and the Saudi lobby was so great that Bandar effectively joined the Bush administration as a virtual member of the cabinet. [3]
George Washington University Professor Hossein Askari blames the "power of the Saudi lobby in Washington" for the failure of the American government to defend the democracy protesters in Bahrain in 2011. According to Askari, "our marriage to the Al-Sauds threatens our (American) national security." [4]
In the assessment of The Economist , "No Arab ambassador—perhaps no ambassador—has come close to matching Prince Bandar's influence in the American capital. At the height of his powers he was indispensable to both sides: in Mr Ottaway's words, "at once the king's exclusive messenger and the White House's errand boy". [5] The Prince's "feats" of lobbying legerdemain included securing the purchase of AWACS surveillance aircraft in the teeth of fierce Israeli and congressional opposition, and augmenting his influence with the Reagan administration by quietly supplying $32m to the Contras in Nicaragua and $10m to anti-communist politicians in Italy. [5]
Atlantic Council and The Centre for Strategic and International Studies
The Atlantic Council received $2 million in 2015 from the United Arab Emirates and benefactors close to Saudi Arabia.
The Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) received $600,000 in 2015 from Riyadh and Abu Dhabi. [6]
In the first decade of the 21st century, the Saudis paid approximately $100 million to American firms to lobby the American government. [7]
Major lobbying firms that work as lobbyists in the pay of the Saudi government include Hill & Knowlton, which has been employed to lobby for Saudi Arabia since 1982. [7] Qorvis Communications has worked for Saudi Arabia since the 9/11 attacks, receiving over $60.3 million over the course of a decade. [8] [9] Hogan Lovells U.S., L.L.P., formerly Hogan & Harston, worked for Saudi Arabia in 2009. [7] The Loeffler Group, LLP, headed by former Congressman Tom Loeffler of Texas, was paid $10.5 million by the Saudi government during the first decade of the century, and gave Sandler Innocenzi, Inc. $8.9 million. [7] Patton Boggs, LLP, earned over $3 million from Saudi Arabia for lobbying in the first decade of the century. [7]
The Middle East Policy Council has received large payments from Saudi Arabia to lobby for the Kingdom, including $1 million in 2007. [10] [11]
A partial list of firms that have been paid by Saudi Arabia to lobby the American government includes: [7]
Since 2015, Saudi Arabia paid $18 million to 145 registered lobbyists to influence the U.S. government. [12]
A partial list of lobbyists that have been paid by Saudi Arabia to lobby for the Kingdom: the Podesta Group, founded by John Podesta and Tony Podesta, the Glover Park Group, former Senator Norm Coleman, H.P. Goldfield, vice chair of Madeleine Albright's Albright Stonebridge Group, the BGR Group, the Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, the Squire Patton Boggs, the DLA Piper, the Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman, and the Qorvis/MSLGroup. [12] [13]
The politics of Saudi Arabia takes place in the context of a unitary absolute monarchy, along traditional Islamist lines, where the King is both the head of state and government. Decisions are, to a large extent, made on the basis of consultation among the King, the Council of Ministers, Islamic scholars, tribal leaders and other traditional elites of the society. Saudi government is authoritarian, although some analysts have characterized the government of Mohammed bin Salman as totalitarian. The Crown Prince and Prime Minister of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Salman, is the de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia. Under his rule, he has centralized policymaking, purged competing political elites, and dismantled pre-existing power-sharing dynamics.
Bandar bin Sultan Al Saud is a retired Saudi Arabian diplomat, military officer, and government official who served as Saudi Arabia's ambassador to the United States from 1983 to 2005. He is a member of the House of Saud. From 2005 to 2015 he served as secretary general of the National Security Council, and was director general of the Saudi Intelligence Agency from 2012 to 2014. From 2014 to 2015 he was King Abdullah's special envoy.
Faisal bin Abdulaziz Al Saud was a Saudi Arabian statesman and diplomat who was King of Saudi Arabia from 2 November 1964 until his assassination in 1975. Before his ascension, he served as Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia from 9 November 1953 to 2 November 1964, and he was briefly regent to his half-brother King Saud in 1964. He was prime minister from 1954 to 1960 and from 1962 to 1975. Faisal was the third son of King Abdulaziz, the founder of modern Saudi Arabia.
Saud bin Faisal Al Saud, also known as Saud Al Faisal, was a Saudi Arabian statesman and diplomat who served as the foreign minister of Saudi Arabia from 1975 to 2015. A member of the Saudi royal family, he was the longest-serving foreign minister in world history.
The Rashidi dynasty, also called Al Rashid or the House of Rashid, was a historic Arabian House or dynasty that existed in the Arabian Peninsula between 1836 and 1921. Its members were rulers of the Emirate of Ha'il and the most formidable enemies of the House of Saud, rulers of the Emirate of Nejd. They were centered in Ha'il, a city in northern Najd that derived its wealth from being on the route of the Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca, and was also a commercial center. The rulers of Ha'il were the sons of Abdullah bin Rashid, founder of the dynasty.
Turki bin Faisal Al Saud is a Saudi prince and former government official who served as the head of Saudi Arabia's General Intelligence Presidency from 1979 to 2001. He is the chairman of the King Faisal Foundation's Center for Research and Islamic Studies.
Squire Patton Boggs is an international law firm with over 40 offices in 20 countries. It was formed in 2014 by the merger of multinational law firm Squire Sanders with Washington, D.C. based Patton Boggs. It is one of the largest law firms in the world by total headcount and gross revenue, twelfth largest firm in the UK by revenue, and one of the top 12 by number of countries occupied.
The General Intelligence Presidency (GIP), also known as the General Intelligence Directorate (GID), is the primary intelligence agency of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
The Arab lobby in the United States is a collection of formal and informal groups and professional lobbyists in the United States paid directly by Gulf Arab states and private donors on behalf of the Arab states.
Bandar bin Abdulaziz Al Saud was the tenth son of King Abdulaziz. At the time of his death, he was the eldest surviving member of the ruling branch of the House of Saud.
The Podesta Group was a lobbying and public affairs firm based in Washington, D.C. It was founded in 1988 by brothers John and Tony Podesta and has previously been known as Podesta Associates, podesta.com and PodestaMattoon. John Podesta left the firm in 1993, and Tony Podesta left the firm on October 30, 2017, after finding out about increased scrutiny of the firm. It has essentially ceased to exist since then. The firm reorganized in January 2007 after chairman Tony Podesta split with former business partner Dan Mattoon.
Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud was King and Prime Minister of Saudi Arabia from 1 August 2005 until his death in 2015. Prior to his ascension, he was Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia since 13 June 1982. He was the tenth son of King Abdulaziz, the founder of Saudi Arabia.
Turks in Saudi Arabia also referred to as Turkish Arabians, Turkish Saudi Arabians, Saudi Arabian Turks, Arabian Turks or Saudi Turks refers to ethnic Turkish people living in Saudi Arabia. The majority of Arabian Turks descend from Ottoman settlers who arrived in the region during the Ottoman rule of Arabia. Most Ottoman Turkish descendants in Saudi Arabia trace their roots to Anatolia; however, some ethnic Turks also came from the Balkans, Cyprus, the Levant, North Africa and other regions which had significant Turkish communities. In addition to Ottoman settlement policies, Turkish pilgrims to Mecca and Medina often settled down in the area permanently.
According to the British government, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia have long been close allies. Relations between the two countries date back to 1848, when Faisal bin Turki, ruler of the Second Saudi state, formally requested the support of the British Political Resident in Bushire for his representative in Trucial Oman.
Reema bint Bandar Al Saud is the current Saudi Arabian ambassador to the United States, a position her father had also previously held. Appointed by King Salman bin Abdulaziz, she presented her credentials to Donald Trump on 8 July 2019 and took office as ambassador on 23 February 2019—becoming the first woman to serve in the role of ambassador in the country's history. She also holds the rank of minister. She has advocated for female empowerment and has worked to expand opportunities for Saudi women within the Kingdom.
Gray Loeffler LLC was an advisory and consulting firm, representing clients' interests before government electoral apparatus and agencies. It was co-founded with a merger in September 2009 of the Amani Group led by former Democratic congressman and Democratic Party Whip, William H. Gray III who currently serves on the Board of Directors of J.P. Morgan Chase, Pfizer, Prudential Financial and Dell, from Philadelphia and the conservative Republican congressman from Texas, Thomas Loeffler and his firm, the Loeffler Group. Tom Loeffler was a key fundraiser and "general co-chairman for the 2008 Republican Presidential candidate, John McCain, who was forced to resign when Newsweek Magazine disclosed that he was a lobbyist on behalf of Saudi Arabia and had received $15 million in compensation from the Saudi Arabian government since 2002.
Qorvis is an international Washington, D.C.-based public relations, advertising, media relations and crisis communications firm. It was acquired by the Publicis Groupe in January 2014, and became Qorvis/MSLGroup.On December 31, 2022, Qorvis was sold by Publicis to a group led by long-time Qorvis executive Matt J. Lauer.
The Saudi National Security Council (SNSC) (Arabic: مجلس الأمن الوطني) was the body in charge of coordinating Saudi Arabia's national security, intelligence and foreign policy strategy. It was established in 2005 by King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud. The first secretary general of the SNSC was Prince Bandar bin Sultan, the former Saudi Ambassador to the United States. The assistant secretary general of the SNSC was Prince Salman bin Sultan until 6 August 2013. The council was abolished by King Salman on 29 January 2015.
Anthony Thomas Podesta is an American lobbyist best known for founding the Podesta Group. The brother of former White House Chief of staff John Podesta, he was formerly one of Washington's most powerful lobbyists and fundraisers.
Saud bin Abdullah al-Qahtani is a Saudi Arabian consultant and former royal court advisor. Prior to his dismissal in late 2018, he worked as an advisor to King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia and crown prince Mohammed bin Salman.